Exodus 1:8-14

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Israelites Become Slaves

⁸ Then a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. ⁹ He said to his people, “There are too many Israelites, and they are stronger than we are. ¹⁰ We have to outsmart them, or they’ll increase in number. Then, if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

¹¹ So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn’t stand them ⌞any longer⌟. ¹³ So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard.